OPD: OHS employee charged with sexual assault of a child

Sammy Cruz Martinez, 29, was charged with a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child.

Sammy Cruz Martinez, 29, was charged with a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child.

Photo: Odessa Police Department

Photo: Odessa Police Department

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Sammy Cruz Martinez, 29, was charged with a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child.

Sammy Cruz Martinez, 29, was charged with a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child.

Photo: Odessa Police Department

OPD: OHS employee charged with sexual assault of a child

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An Odessa High School employee has been charged following a sexual assault investigation, according to an Odessa Police Department press release.

Sammy Cruz Martinez, 29, was charged with a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault of a child, an incident that Mike Adkins, Ector ISD’s communications officer, described as “unacceptable.”

Odessa police received a report on July 15 of an alleged sexual assault, according to the OPD release.

The investigation revealed that several inappropriate messages had been sent between Martinez and a 16-year-old male special-needs student. Further investigation revealed that there had been a sexual relationship between the two, according to the release.

OPD identified Martinez as a teacher’s aide. Adkins said Martinez began working with the district in April 2017.

“We are angry to be facing a situation like this again,” Adkins said in a statement.” The safety of our students is our highest priority. We want to remind our community that we take great strides to hire great people -- our hiring requires a criminal background check, via fingerprinting. Drug testing is required, as are checks of previous employment. We place a very heavy emphasis on ethics training. We require face-to-face and online training for all employees, and multiple times per year. We give special focus to sessions on inappropriate relationships between educators and students. We set very clear expectations for our staff.

“We have incredible people in ECISD,” he said. “This situation denigrates the work being done by thousands of others who are teaching, encouraging and inspiring kids every day. We do not want to forget their work. At the same time, we want to assure our community we will help the police and the family in any way we can. An incident like this is unacceptable.”

Martinez was arrested Wednesday morning by Ector County ISD police, according to the release. If convicted of the second-degree felony charge, he could face up to 20 years imprisonment.